John 15
An Exegesis of John 15:1-27
John 15:1-27 recounts Christ's last words to His disciples the night before His execution on Calvary. Beginning with His identification of Himself with the "true vine" and ending His exhortation that His disciples "bear witness," Christ both states clearly and explicitly what union with Him is like and what those who are in union with Him can expect from the world. This paper will give a line-by-line exegesis of John 15:1-27.
Leon Morris (1989) notes that "in the Old Testament the vine is often a symbol of Israel, sometimes of degenerate Israel" (p. 120). Thus, when John relates a scene in which Jesus says, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit" (15:1-2), he is making a statement that, of course, begins with "I Am" -- which John does numerously in his Gospel. As Morris indicates, it is a statement that has origins in the Old Testament understanding of God -- but, as John uses it, it also concludes with an Old Testament image (the image of Israel) being renewed in Christ.
"I Am," of course, refers to the pronouncement from God Himself to Moses, who asked by what name the Israelites should call Him: "God replied, 'I am who am.' Then he added, 'This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14). The meaning of this divine name has been debated by scholars for some time. Traditionally, it has been translated into Jahveh or Yahweh: "Jahveh (Yahweh) is one of the archaic Hebrew nouns…derived from the third person imperfect in such a way as to attribute to a person or a thing the action of the quality expressed by the verb after the manner of a verbal adjective or a participle…As the Divine name is an imperfect form of the archaic Hebrew verb 'to be', Jahveh means 'He Who is', Whose characteristic note consists in being, or The Being simply" (Maas, 1910). Being and Truth are related in both Old Testament Scripture and New Testament. Jesus' "I am" assertion is coupled with the word "true" -- "I am the true vine" -- a technique used "to distinguish His reality and genuineness from that which is false" (Towns, 2002, p. 150).
John's exposition on union with Christ in chapter 15 continues with: "You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you." Here, Christ tells his disciples to retain the lessons and the grace He has given them, and stresses their spiritual relationship. Then He again likens Himself to the vine (and as this is the Last Supper, it is fitting that He does so, associating His blood with the fruit of the vine): "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remain on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5). Christ stresses the fact that He is the anchor, the root, the support -- in short, the inspiration behind all good things: "without me you can do nothing."
Christ then warns His disciples what they can expect if they do not cling to Him: "If anyone does not abide in me, he shall be cast outside as the branch and wither; and they shall gather them up and cast them into the fire, and they shall burn" (John 15:6). His reference to burning is a clear reference to hellfire, implying that it really is an either/or choice: either one follows...
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